Showcasing the artwork and process of Roleplaying and Fantasy Literature Illustrator Del Teigeler

Tuesday, December 1, 2015

The Sketch Cache

Sketching: we all do it, even if it is just doodles of randomness that occupies our time during meetings, impromptu coffee shop time sinks, or actually sitting down to generate concepts for a living. Even if you think you have no talent at all, you've sketched something. From a stick figure to a crayola doodle of life at six, sketching is what we do to show representation of what we "see" in our head, and what comes out of our implement. Some are better than others, some make a living at it, some just do it for themselves. If you have a blank anything, from paper to stone to the inside ceiling of a cave as a canvas, and you have an object that can impress upon that object and leave a mark, you can sketch. Cave men did it, Egyptians did it, the greats like Leonardo, and Michelangelo did it, up to modern times.

Wow, not sure where the diatribe came from but its staying. Anyway, its a good opener for me to showcase some of my more recent sketches. Some are concepts for current projects, others just studies, and some are failed attempts at the gathering of random lines drawn on paper.

I wont comment on all of them, but then again maybe I will.

Perfecting something, or maybe not. The center one leaves something to be desired for sure.

Waiting room sketch with an ESPN magazine for reference. These were done with a ballpoint I believe. All I had at the time, I like to constantly work on faces, expressions, shapes hair, everything.

Concept sketch for an upcoming +Thork Hammer project. This looks nothing like what the final will eventually look like, but I was working out the perspective and shape of the thing. Background of rough trees, and some hills, are jotted in very hastily. It will eventually be larger, and more detailed but this gave us a place to start getting our brains synchronized from what I read in the draft to what he saw in his head when he wrote it.

Final pencils for the same project, this will be inked and finished up with a background.

Initial sketch for a potential client. Fast rendering of a dragon statue, and a dead dude, with on onlooker.

Here is the same scene where I made it a bit more dynamic, and tightened up the composition of the sketch. Does it look better? Which do you prefer? Comment below.

Here are a few more for the same potential client. The first I had the figure up to the edge of the platform, looking out over the mist shrouded valley.

Here I have moved the figure back in the scene a bit to better represent his size in relation to the tablets along the edge. It also fills a lot of that empty space at the bottom of the page.

Here are a few rough concepts for another new project.

That shark just sort of invaded the space. Must have been mind wander while I thought of other fishy type things.

Working out the perspective of a perspective town.

Close to finished pencils, not sure what I am going to do with it yet. This was a brainstorm sort of sketch that I just went with. Didnt turn out too bad, and I will submit it as well to the previously mentioned project.

Well, I hope that gives everyone a bit of insight into more of my process, how my brain sketches and how my hand interprets what is going on in the cranium. I also felt bad that I have not been posting as regular and thought I had to make up for it. Hope this helps.